SKATE MEETS ETC

Well let's see, first I will go over the Auburn meet from January.
Elementary Girls Novice = 3rd Place in 500 meter 4th place overall (out of 14 girls)
Elementary Girls Standard (elite) = 6th Place overall (out of 10)
Elementary 2 Mix Relay =2nd Pl in heat, 3rd Place overall (out of 10+ teams that started)
Ericka did pretty good. Her and her partner did a really good relay. She was the starter and gave them a good lead. She just had a couple of bad starts but overall she did well.
She did her first Dash for Cash race. This is when each skater goes out on their own and gets timed for one lap. The fasted time in that division wins and they get whatever cash was in the pot. There were 7 girls in Ericka's division, 3 that were 2nd year elementary and 4 1st years. Ericka didn't win but she got the fastest time for the 1st years, she got 11.73 seconds for one lap. She had been skating since 5 am that morning, raced the whole day and DFC was at 9:30 pm so that time wasn't even her best. (her best time is 10.78) to give you an idea, world champion indoor skaters average around 8-9 seconds. It was a good meet for her and she found out what she needed to work on for the next one.



Next the Bremerton Meet (Feb 23-24)
Elementary Girls Novice = 1st Place in all heats and semifinals 2nd Place overall (out of 15)
Elementary Girls Standard (elite) = 6th Place (out of 10)
Freshman 4 Girl Relay = 1st Place (out of 5 teams)
Freshman 4 Mix Relay = 3rd Place (out of 6 teams)
Elementary 2 Mix Relay (with Nate) 5th Place (out of 10 teams)
Elementary 2 Girl Relay = 4th Place (out of 10+ teams)
She knew what she needed to do and did it! She raced her little heart out. She got to do some relays with the older kids and was able to keep the lead they had. She got tons of compliments and came home with 3 medals. Her and Nate got out of their heat in 3rd pl in the relay, they worked well together, next year they will relay at all meets. The elementary 2 girl was quite interesting. They had heats, which they made it out of and then they started the final. This relay is 20 laps, each girl doing 2 laps 5 times each. They were in 3rd pl and only had 2 laps to go and one of the teams fell and got injured so they whistled the race over. They let the other division do their relay and then restarted the elementary race, not enough time to rest. So Ericka started again and got a huge lead and had them in 2nd but at the last couple of laps in the end both girls got too tired and weren't able to keep their lead so they got 4th overall, but it's the best racing I have seen Ericka ever do. She was breathing so hard she went over to the coach and just laid right down on the floor, he had to drag her over to the side. She did great starts, passed when she needed to and even passed both of the biggest skaters in her novice division. There were a lot of people who said they couldn't believe how fast she has gotten since last season. It helps that she can finally go to every practice and has one of the best coaches out there (besides Joe). She also wants to go back to Nationals this year so she has a goal, which helps.

Anyways, she is doing good. She is still getting high grades. She wasn't able to qualify for the Highly Capable program, her math scores weren't high enough but her reading skills are topping the charts so she qualified for a different program instead. The only difference between the HC program and what she is in is that the HP program gives them advanced work and a study plan for all subjects. She will only be getting advanced work for reading/spelling/writing. It also means that next year when she goes to Middle school they will allow her to take enrichment English classes. I think it worked out better in the long run, she has trouble with math like I did (but thankfully not as bad) and I think she would have been overwhelmed with that. She also was afraid of being called one of the "brainy nerds". This way she will be kept in a normal class but just be given harder work in the few areas she excels at. They have already been doing this to some extent though. I will say that I am very happy she will be out of this school soon. It has worked well for Nate so far but it's been harder for her. Their way of dealing with girl conflict is a joke, and I will just keep it at that. As long as she is getting good grades and she is happy with everything else we told her not to let the adults ruin it all for her. It's amazing and scary how a group of "educated" people can be so stupid and they are the ones responsible for my children's education, makes me tempted at times to become one of those renegade parents and just pull them out and get tutors (that I can interview before handing over my kids). I am actually serious! They have a program here through the school district that is more of a charter program that goes through 8th grade. The kids learn at home or in small groups (at their level) and they have to meet with a certified teacher once a week and have so many hours of community involvement (volunteer hours etc). It is tempting and she would probably do even better.